Despite the inquiry into the 2008 settlement and the pursuing legal battle over the scanning project, Google has added an array of features to its Book Search service to make search and reading convenient.
The enhancements to Book Search incorporate: embeds and linking capabilities -to help users embed books into their own websites; improved search; plain text mode – to help viewing only the content part of a book without images; and thumbnail view – to display all the pages in a book.
Brandon Badget, a Google Books product manager, wrote in a blog: For readers, this means they can more easily share pages from books you love, while publisher partners can gain even more awareness across the web to promote their books.
Google started scanning books in 2004 to make the content digitally searchable. The publishers and authors sued the company in 2005, alleging that it had violated copyright laws. Google settled the dispute through an agreement to pay $125m. In April 2009, the US Department of Justice has commenced the investigation after various parties complained that Google would monopolise commercialisation of orphan books.
